Are guys better photographers than women?

This question has been the subject of some debate Some say yes others say no. Of course women have always been a force in photography, not different from men. Two examples are shown in the picture at the left. One is Eva Besnyö,
who most of you probably dont know. Eva was a Dutch Hungarian photographer well known for her subtle black and white portraits. The other is Robert Capa the famous war action photographer.

Do men and women physically see the world differently?
Some scientists have reason to believe that women are better in discrimination of colour details, while men are better in discrimination details of moving patterns. Other scientists (including
myself) believe that there is no real hard evidence so far that men and women differ in basic perceptual functions. But there could be differences in the way their brains interpret the visual environment: the
cognitive and emotional interpretation of images that enter the brain. There seems to a consensus that women in general have a stronger interest for emotional and men more for technical issues in life. Boths issues are also
important for making good pictures. So men in general would be more interested in getting technical things right, and women more in the emotional ‘setting’ of the pictures. For example, women might tend to emphasize
the social, caring and empathical side in their visual scenes. Men would probably tend to emphase more the action, confrontational side. Also because men in general score higher in ‘thrill seeking’, a personality trait
I wrote something about in an earlier blog.

The same reasoning would also hold for UW photography. Men of course are over represented in the world of UW photography. What about their preferences? I guess that men would
be more interested in macro pictures of nudibranches and sea pigmies (their technical side) and pictures of sharks (their adventurous side) than women. Women would be more interested in taking pictures of sea mammals like dolphins
and manatees and their babies (their emotional and social side). But men as well as women are found among the medal winners in UW photography of recent years.